Benzol: "In general, this end-game is a rare occurrence in practical play. However, if my memory does not betray me, Lilienthal had encountered this very end-game (irony of fate!) twice previously, and on neither occasion could he discover the way to victory. - Mikhail Botvinnik in Championship Chess.

If Botvinnik was right, one occassion was against G M Norman in 1934 but what was the other?

Here, White played 96. Kg1?, giving Black his last shot at forcing a win, according to the Namilov tablebase (96. Kf1 is the only move that saves the draw). But in this game, Black let it slip away for good with 96...Ke3 (Kf3 leads to mate in 26!).

With White's pawn advanced to the 6th rank, Black must be very precise -- He could lose if his timing is off! A likely continuation (with best play on both sides) is presented below. I use "!!" to mark the only winning move (all other moves draw), and ! to mark critcal moves (all other moves draw or lose ground).

96. Kg1? Kf3!!
97. Kf1 Nf2
98. Ke1 Ke3!! The king and a single knight begin to corner the opposing king.

This is the position that black needs (it would be equivalent if the knight were on e3 instead of f4). However, we need it to be Black's move! So, now we do a strange 7-move triangulation such that we will wind up with the equivalent position with Black to move:

Botvinnik in his book of the 1941 match-tournament claimed that 84... Nc2 won, giving 85 Kf2 Ne1 with main line 86 Kf3 Ke3 87 Kg4 Ke4 88 Kg3 Nd3 89 Kg4 Nf2+ 90 Kg3 Ke3 91 Kg2 Ne4 and wins by driving the WK into either the h1 or h8 corner (White's choice). The h1 corner lasts longer – see <YouRang>’s analysis (the equivalent was also given by Botvinnik). However the Nalimov Tablebase Server http://www.lokasoft.nl/tbweb.htm shows that 85 Kg2! draws. White heads for g6 via h3, h4 and h5 while the Nc2 is sufficiently out of play.

I was interested to see from <YouRang>’s analysis that Lilienthal missed a further win at move 96: this possibility is not mentioned by Botvinnik.

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